"To where?" Whiffenpuff shook his head glumly and immediately Rosa Merry, Kinda Jolly and all the rest rushed into the kitchen to see for themselves how gone everything was. Naturally enough they found neither Mombi nor Pajuka and, on the whole, this was most fortunate, for otherwise they might have eaten the Prime Minister of Oz and swallowed with him the whole of this story. "Our dinner began with a G and now its gone! Gone begins with a G. Our dinner is gone with a G! Shall I laugh?" asked Hah Hoh, beginning to tickle himself in the ribs. "I should say not. Why, this is no laughing matter. No cook! No goose! No dinner! Oh! I'm so disappointed I could cry!" choked Kinda Jolly, puffing out his cheeks. "Don't do that! Don't do that!" begged Rosa Merry, and tumbling off her high stool she sent a page flying for the Town Crier. I never told you there was one, but Kimbaloo has a Town Crier as well as a Town Laugher, for no one in that merry Kingdom ever thinks of shedding tears. So before one could wink the Town Crier came running in with a page, and when Whiffenpuff told him about the lost dinner, the lost goose and the lost cook, he simply burst into tears. "How long shall I cry?" he sobbed, looking around his handkerchief at Kinda Jolly. "Seven minutes for the goose and th-three for Mombi," sniffed the King, biting his lip to keep from crying himself. So the Town Crier jerked out another hanky, and while all the rest stood around and looked solemn and Kinda held his watch, he wept eye after eye full of tears. "Do you feel better?" asked Rosa Merry presently, patting Kinda's plump hand. "A little, a little," acknowledged the King, "but do you s'pose Mombi's gone for good?" "Well, I trust so," sniffed the Town Laugher, shrugging his shoulders, "but I'm afraid she has gone for bad, your Majesty. A more evil appearing old wretch I've never seen in Oz, and perhaps we are well rid of her. Only a week ago I had a letter from a sixteenth cousin of mine in the Emerald City telling of a famous invisible cook who lived near her. Why not send for this invisible cook, your Highness?" "That's what we've got now, isn't it?" put in General Whiffenpuff, gloomily, but Kinda's eyes began to snap at the Town Laugher's suggestion. "Why an invisible cook would be simply out of sight!" cried the King, motioning for the Town Crier to cease his lamentations. "Let us send for her at once!" "And meanwhile I'll be cook," smiled Rosa Merry, happy that everything was turning out so well. "Guess what we're going to have for dinner?" "Omelet!" gulped the Town Crier, wringing out his handkerchiefs in a business-like fashion and immediately the rest began to guess this and then that till they were all as jolly as possible. But right in the midst of the merriment, in came ten little button boys to report the disappearance of Snip.